The Yanbu Industrial City Economic Plan is a landmark long-range strategic framework commissioned by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY) — Saudi Arabia’s government authority responsible for planning, developing, and managing Yanbu Industrial City and Jubail Industrial City, two of the Kingdom’s most strategically significant economic hubs. Dr. Ghulam Mohey-ud-din served as Principal Economic Planner on this engagement, leading the full analytical lifecycle of the Yanbu Industrial City economic plan from baseline diagnostics through to a forward-looking economic vision aligned with Saudi Vision 2030.
Background and Strategic Context
Yanbu Industrial City had reached a strategic inflection point by the time this engagement commenced. While the city had firmly established itself as a core node in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical and industrial base — hosting major refining complexes, petrochemical plants, and downstream manufacturing operations — the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 agenda demanded a fundamental transformation. Rising pressure to diversify economic activity, reduce hydrocarbon dependency, attract private sector investment, and create quality employment for Saudi nationals required a comprehensive and evidence-grounded economic plan. The challenge was to translate national Vision 2030 industrial diversification ambitions into a credible city-level economic roadmap with realistic investment logic and phased sequencing.
Analytical Approach and Methodology
The Yanbu Industrial City economic plan drew on an integrated analytical methodology combining quantitative and qualitative economic planning tools. Revealed and latent competitive advantage analysis was conducted across Yanbu’s key industrial sectors, benchmarking the city’s economic performance and potential against comparable industrial cities in the GCC, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Spatial economic modelling was deployed to identify underutilised economic assets, optimal zones for new industrial development, and infrastructure bottlenecks constraining growth. Labour market diagnostics assessed the composition of Yanbu’s workforce, skills gaps, Saudisation targets, and future employment scenarios under different diversification trajectories. A structured stakeholder engagement process — engaging RCJY planners, private sector operators, government ministries, and sectoral experts — informed the prioritisation of strategic interventions and investment sequencing decisions.
Key Deliverables
- Yanbu Industrial City Baseline Economic Report — comprehensive economic profiling and diagnostic assessment
- Sector Competitiveness and Industry Cluster Analysis — identifying high-potential clusters for diversification
- Labour Market and Employment Diagnostic — workforce planning aligned with Saudisation and Vision 2030 targets
- Long-Range Economic Vision and Strategic Framework — 20-year economic trajectory for Yanbu
- Phased Investment and Diversification Roadmap — sequenced priorities for public and private investment
- Policy Recommendations aligned with RCJY mandate and national industrialisation programmes
Outcomes and Impact
The Yanbu Industrial City Economic Plan delivered a technically rigorous, policy-ready economic framework that provides RCJY with a structured basis for investment sequencing, sector prioritisation, and economic performance benchmarking under Vision 2030. The strategic framework positions Yanbu to systematically transition from a resource-processing hub toward a diversified, knowledge-linked industrial economy — capable of attracting foreign direct investment, generating high-value non-oil employment, and competing effectively as a premier GCC industrial destination.
This project reflects Dr. Mohey-ud-din’s deep expertise in city-scale economic planning, industrial diversification strategy, and Vision 2030 implementation advisory — core competencies developed through sustained engagement with RCJY across multiple Yanbu and Jubail projects, and through parallel work in Pakistan under World Bank-funded provincial economic planning programmes.